Some Remarks on Cognacy Judgments of Ainu Dialects : On Asai (1974)

There are two lexicostatistical studies on Ainu dialects that still have a great influence on current Ainu linguistics: they are by Hattori and Chiri (1960) and Asai (1974). However, Hattori and Chiri (1960) and Asai (1974) analyzed different parts of lexicostatistical data based on different cognacy judgments. This led to an inconsistency in the classification of Ainu dialects in recent studies. Furthermore, the difficulties in the specification of 110 words and the corresponding cognacy judgments by Asai have prevented researchers from examining, comparing, and integrating the works of Hattori and Chiri (1960) and Asai (1974). This paper is an attempt to identify 110 words from 135 candidates and the corresponding cognacy judgments by Asai, and adopt an approach that enables Ainu linguists to discuss the validation of the cognacy judgments by Asai. The approach can identify the assumptions on Asai`s data with the results on the specification of the words and the corresponding cognacy judgments. Therefore, the properties of the approach enable the author to examine the specification of the words and the corresponding cognacy judgments from a linguistic perspective and revise the assumptions on Asai's data from the viewpoints of Hattori and Chiri (1960). The primary results in this paper demonstrate that (1) the descriptions by Asai are insufficient for specifying all 110 words and (2) part of the non-cognate judgments in Asai, specified by our approach, differ from a phonetic correspondence among Hokkaido Ainu dialects and Sakhalin Ainu dialects on Ainu linguistics (Hattori 1967: 209). Furthermore, the statistical findings demonstrate that the view on lexicostatistical data in Asai (1974) classifies Tarantomari and Maoka into different clusters, and Tarantomari and Maoka form one cluster from the viewpoints of Hattori and Chiri (1960), which is consistent to linguistic and philological studies (e.g., Sakaguchi 2019). This suggests a need for the classification of Ainu dialects through the integration of Hattori and Chiri's (1960) and Asai's (1974) works